Full Carbonite for Business Review

Carbonite for business makes backing up your business files easy and painless. Businesses rely on their data and having a reliable and secure system to keeping their data safe is important for businesses of all sizes. Carbonite for business can help your business keep your data backed up and safe.

Installation
Carbonite for business is easy to install for anyone in a business. Once your account is created on the Carbonite website you can create a new user, download the software to the computer and run the installation. If you don’t want to do it your self Carbonite does offer a free installation service to help you get the software installed on your computers. Since Carbonite for business is made for businesses you need to create a new user of select a user for the backup. The web administration dashboard makes it easy to create and manage users.

Once the software is downloaded to the local computer double clicking the installation pack starts the install wizard with the usual warnings about making chanes on the computer and accepting the terms of service. Once the software is installed the wizard walks you through setting a nickname for the computer and choosing your initial backup settings. The initial settings are good for the majority of users but you might want to double check that all your important files are selected for backup from each computer that you install the software on.

Backing Up
The backup starts right after the installation wizard is complete. If you chose the defaults there is not much to do except check that all the files you wnt are included in the backup. If you went with the advanced options you would need to set the private encryption key, select your files and set your backup schedule. Even that is not a difficult process and easy enough for most computer users. Depending on the amount of data the computer has to backup and your Internet connection speed will determine how long your initial backup takes.

Restoring Files
Restoring files is also an easy process with Carbonite for business. If you need only a few files or if you are away from your office computer you can restore files through the web portal. Simply select the files you need to restore and downloading them to your local computer.

If you need to restore more files or are at your computer you can restore through the desktop client. The restore option walks you through each step to restore your files to your desktop and then downloads them from your backup. You can choose to restore files back to thier original location or place them on the desktop for you to move later. If there are certian files you need access to faster than others you can select which files to restore first. You are then presented with a restore confirmation and Carbonite will then download your files.

Unlimited Computers, External Hard Drives and Network Attached Storage
There is no licensing fee per computer with Carbonite for business so if you have 5 computers or 500 you can install Carbonite on all of them and backup your entire business. You are limited by the amount of storage space those computers can backup to and additonal storage can get expensive if you need large amounts of extra storage.

Carbonite for business does backup data from external hard drives connected to computers and network attached storage devices. Depending on the size of your business and if you are using a NAS for central storage of business files this is a nice additonal feature.

Windows Server Support
If you are using any of the Windows Server line of operating system or wanting to backup any database server like SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, MySQL and Oracle you need to get the BusinessPremier plan. This makes backing up your small business database more expensive. Some small companies might not even be aware that they are using a database server if it is built into another application. This is true even of local intranet applications that use MySQL would require the larger plan. Something to be aware of as you plan your business backup to know if you are using any kind of database driven application.

Web Admin Dashboard
The web admin dashboard makes it easy for the business IT administrator to easily see the status of all the users and all current and pending backup operations. It will also let them monitor the amount of online storage that is being used and if more space is needed. New users can also be added and managed from one central location.

Support
Carbonite for business offers phone, email and chat support to business users. All support is based in the United States with phone support available 7 days a week from 8am to Midnight Eastern Time (excluding U.S. holidays). Phone support is nice to have for business if you are having problems backing up or restoring your data.

Overall
Carbonite for business is an excellent choice to help protect your business computer files. It offers good value for businesses that do not need to worry about large amounts of online storage. It is easy to use, much like the Carbonite home backup software, and stays out of the way on the computer so your computer is not bogged down aways backing up. The web admin is a nice feature to help manage backup users and monitor the status of backups and the unlimited computers to an account allows a business to grow without worring about per computer licensing fees for backup.